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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23791105">Strobbery</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuki_Frill/pseuds/Yuki_Frill'>Yuki_Frill</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Comedy, Family Bonding, Gen, Viren POV, Viren loves his children but why are they like this</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:23:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>932</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23791105</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuki_Frill/pseuds/Yuki_Frill</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's just a typical family night for Viren, an exhausted single Father of two idiosyncratic teens.</p><p>
  <i>Written for #MageFamWeek2020, Day 2: Modern AU</i>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Claudia &amp; Soren &amp; Viren (The Dragon Prince), Claudia &amp; Soren (The Dragon Prince)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Strobbery</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Been a while since I posted a fic so I'm probably rusty but everyone's enthusiasm over this event helped me squeeze something out!</p><p>This oneshot is roughly based on Racquel's interview with the Hot Brown Morning Potion podcast last month :D</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Viren couldn’t comprehend why this was still a thing.</p><p>His work demanded him to work overtime frequently, but it was one of those rare days where he was allowed to be home before the sun disappeared. Dinner with his children was rowdy. Could be unbearable when it became a norm, but was actually something he loved to indulge in every once in a while. Their endless chattering was a refreshing change to his quiet work life.</p><p>Still, he wished they’d just keep it at that. A rowdy dinner was plenty. He really didn’t need… this.</p><p>“Welcome back, loyal sir, to our show tonight!”</p><p>“We are Soren and Claudia from the One Brain Cell!”</p><p>Why the tinfoil hat? Why the jazz hands?</p><p>Was that supposed to be funny? Had humanity spiralled all the way to a place so bleak this buffoonery was supposed to make people laugh?</p><p>Days like this made Viren question where in the world his genes had gone amidst the other defective ones that made up his children. Claudia would sometimes show that those genes were just dormant but would be awaken with intense brilliance should the time call for it. As for Soren, it seemed as though the genes were identified as toxins by his body, had been disintegrated and their particles excreted during one of his restroom visits. Heart-breaking to say that the boy had inherited nothing but Viren’s razor-sharp jawline. <em>That </em>was his only saving grace.</p><p>“Our first act is called Strobbery,” Claudia began explaining, exaggerating her hand movements for reasons beyond Viren’s imaginations. When Viren stayed unresponsive, Claudia followed up with, “Get it? It’s because we’re robbing straw—”</p><p>Soren interjected, shushing his sister. “We’re not supposed to spoil the end of the story, Clauds!”</p><p>Viren cast a pitying look at the bowl of strawberries set on the living table before them. If he could speak strawberry, no doubt he would hear them question why they had to be here tonight.</p><p><em>Me, too, strawberries,</em> Viren empathized,<em> Me, too.</em></p><p>As soon as Viren's attention returned to his children, though, he blanched. Gone was the tinfoil hat; Soren's entire head was now wrapped in what could only seem like one of Claudia's pair of beige stockings so tight he looked like a squished pufferfish—a neon green watergun in his hand. All the while Claudia had taped the tip of her hair under her nose so now she had a ridiculously-long purple moustache connected to the rest of her hair. </p><p>"Hey, that's my stocking!" Claudia for some reason complained. Like they hadn't agreed on that bit.</p><p>Likewise, Soren gasped like he hadn't expected to be caught. "How eed you dow?"</p><p>He could barely word his question all with the tightness wrapped around his entire face, but Claudia had somehow managed to decipher it.</p><p>"Yuh-huh! Who else wears that size in this house?"</p><p>No... that's not it, Claudia. That's <em>not</em> how you're supposed to go with it.</p><p>Clicking his tongue, Soren hissed, "Emmit!"</p><p>"Great, now it's gonna stretch. Take it off!" Claudia forcefully yanked the stocking off but kept pulling on his hair, making him produce a high pitch scream.</p><p>Viren wondered, not for the first time that night, if he could pretend to have contracted ulcer pain? No, they would forcefully drag him to the hospital and his deception would be mercilessly picked apart.</p><p>Perhaps if he delivered a message to Harrow whilst they bicker, he could somehow get the man to call him and pretend Viren had forgotten a plan to meet up. Harrow would always tell him he shouldn’t drink away his life problems, but tonight, after being succumbed to such elaborate psychological torture, he should be allowed a free pass, shouldn’t he?</p><p>Harrow, his lifelong best friend, would not deny him such a desperate request, would he?</p><p>"Yeah, you didn't hear me complain when you stole my hoodies!"</p><p>Breaking Viren's train of thoughts was his children's extensive bickering. Soren was already out of the stocking and was able to properly speak his mind.</p><p>"Oh, yeah?" Claudia challengingly retorted. "So why do I keep hearing <em>hoothief </em>whispered in my ear every single day for two weeks?"</p><p>"Because you're a thief! A hoodie thief! A hoothief!" Soren accused, pointing between his sister's eyes aggressively as he did.</p><p>Refusing to accept the accusation, Claudia squared her shoulders and rose to meet her brother's eye level and, Viren assumed, about to go on a lengthy rant about how Soren couldn't fit in the hoodie anymore, therefore it being missing hadn't inconvenienced him in any way, like she did a million times before.</p><p>Viren was determined to end it all before it started.</p><p>“Children,” he called, not forgetting to use his I-am-serious tone to make sure they gave him their full attention. It worked. “I am to increase your monthly allowance by thirty percent if you stop this right now. Both the skit and the petty fights.”</p><p>They stopped for a week before they’d pulled him to the living room couch again one night, submitting him to an hour of the absolute clownery that was their newest skit.</p><p>They had used their increased allowance to purchase higher quality props and they were now more confident than ever before about recreating that robbery skit. Viren wondered if the whole skit and petty fights were just an elaborate strategy the two of them concocted to achieve this very result, knowing how far Viren would go for it to end.</p><p>Resigned, Viren tried to look at the bright side; at least now they had a proper ski mask and moustache to rob those strawberries.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Shortest oneshot I've ever written! So proud of that for some reason :D</p></blockquote></div></div>
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